The present invention relates to a dispensing device and more specifically to a dispensing device for dispensing a predetermined amount of solid materials in powder or granular form.
Dispensing devices positioned beneath hoppers, containers and the like are well known. In some cases these devices dispense solid materials in the form of powder or granular materials by pushing or pulling a lever such that a measured quantity of the material is dispensed. Examples of such dispensing devices are disclosed by Hammer in U.S. Pat. No. 2,561,696 and Jones in U.S. Pat. No. 559,386. Both of these patents disclose a dispensing aperture or chamber which is positioned first under an opening from a container, hopper or the like so material fills the chamber. The chamber is then moved over a discharge opening so that the material is dispensed.
Castro in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,835 shows another embodiment of a dispensing device wherein a dispensing aperture or chamber is fixedly positioned with a top or filling aperture in a top sliding plate and a bottom or discharge aperture in a bottom sliding plate. The plates are moved together from a first position to a second position, in the first position the chamber fills and in the second position the chamber empties. The patents described herein are but a few of the known types of dispensers. Furthermore liquid dispensers for soap and the like having similar types of mechanisms are known.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a portable dispensing device that can be used for dispensing food such as coffee, sugar, salt and the like and which can be hand held over for example a cup of coffee. By squeezing or depressing a handle or dispensing knob, a predetermined measure of sugar can be dispensed into the coffee. The device can preferably be used with one hand. Such a device avoids having to use a spoon to measure a specific quantity of sugar. In existing types of sugar jars it is difficult to control the exact quantity of sugar dispensed and the present measuring device provides a dispenser which always dispenses the same quantity of sugar or other particulate material every time the handle or knob is depressed.
The present invention provides a device for dispensing a predetermined amount of solids comprising a container, a body member below the container having a longitudinal passage therein, a top opening from the container to the longitudinal passage, a sliding member with a substantially rectangular cross-section, the sliding member having a sliding fit within the longitudinal passage movable from a first position to a second position, a dispenser aperture extending through the sliding member and positioned under the top opening from the container when the sliding member is in the first position, a bottom opening in the body member from a bottom surface of the longitudinal passage to permit solids to dispense from the body member when the sliding member is in the second position, the bottom opening not overlapping the top opening.
In another embodiment there is provided an adjustment mechanism for varying the volume of the dispenser aperture so that the amount of solids being dispensed can be varied.